Malaysian Province Moves To Gold And Silver-Based Currency In “Main Islamic Event Of The Last 100 Years”

More world governments are “just saying no” to the ponzi. Last week, the Malaysian government of Kelantan “said it was introducing a new monetary system featuring standardised gold and silver coins based on the traditional dinar and dirham coins once used by the Ottoman Empire.” And as everyone who has taken game theory 101 knows, the first defector wins the most, while the last one is left with nothing. A small province in Malaysia just made the critical first defection. The question now is who will be next… and next…and next.

The FT reports:

Nik Abdul Aziz, the state’s chief minister, spoke in visionary terms of an economy in which state civil servants would be paid in the new sharia currency, and the poor would be protected against inflation by the intrinsic value of the precious metals used to produce it.

About 1,000 shops and restaurants in the state have said they will accept the new currency, which follows an earlier issue of gold dinars in 2006. The coins comply with traditional Islamic teaching on the use of coins with intrinsic value as a medium of exchange, rather than paper money.

While having prior experience with Sharia-compliant debt issuance, Zero Hedge staff was unaware that it is against Islamic beliefs to endlessly dilute linen “money” in the way every central bank is doing now. One learns something new every day.